


What Now?

by MadameDirector



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-17
Updated: 2013-03-22
Packaged: 2017-12-05 13:58:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/724058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadameDirector/pseuds/MadameDirector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would have happened if Xander and Angel were too late in the Master's cave?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. SSH!  We're Hunting Masters!

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a oneshot called Chosen to Destroy by 3dmaster on XanderZone

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“What do you want?” Angel said exasperatedly as Xander pushed past him into the apartment.

Xander turned to face him. “Buffy went to face the Master alone because of you and Giles, so you’re taking me to him so I can help her.”

“It’s a prophecy, boy. There’s nothing anyone can do.”

“I don’t care about prophecy, I care about Buffy. I thought you did too. Let’s go.” 

Xander motioned toward the door.

“If I take you down there, we’re both going to die.”

Xander brought a shotgun around from where it was slung across his back and pointed it at Angel’s face. “Pretty please with buckshot on top?”

 

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They had been in the sewers for 20 minutes when Angel said, “You could have helped out with that demon.”

“The Scourge of Europe needs help with one little demon?”

“I’m not Angelus anymore,” Angel snapped. Then, “I’m just saying, it would have been faster if you would have just shot it.”

“It also would have told everything in the sewer that we were coming.”

Angel didn’t have any response for that as he turned the corner ahead of Xander and was grabbed by the throat then slammed against the wall.

“Angelus!” the Master grinned gruesomely. “I see that the Slayer’s death has returned 

your testicular fortitude," Angel gasped around the grip the Master had on his throat, "Nothing to say in your defense? Pity. I suppose--”

The Master was so focused on taunting Angel that Xander was able to slip behind him and blow his head off with the shotgun.

“Actually, no, it didn’t. It still took a shotgun to get him down here.” Xander paused as they started running toward the Master’s lair. “You know, that’s a lot more fun when the bad guys are still alive to react.”

 

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They reached the Master’s lair and found Buffy lying on the ground, dead. No CPR would save her. They were too late. Xander picked her up and told Angel, “Take me back to the surface.”

They were silent until they got to the library when Xander told Angel, "I don't want to see you in my town again. If you had stopped trying to make her fall in love with you and started trying to help her, she might still be alive. You can stay until after her funeral, if you feel you have to, but then I want you gone or I'll dust your cryptic, pedophile ass myself."

Angel blinked and nodded in response then disappeared into the shadows.

 

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	2. Meet the Winchesters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a fairly inexperienced author so I would appreciate constructive criticism. Also, I'm not as sure of the voices of the Supernatural characters so I'd like opinions on them.

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Xander and Willow were discussing the untimely demise of Principal Snyder while Giles tutted disapprovingly when Dawn came in pulling Joyce by the arm and being followed by Angel.

Before they could ask her what was going on, Dawn said, "We have to tell her, Giles. She's talking about leaving and I refuse to leave and she deserves to know why."

Joyce looked at Dawn confusedly, "Why what, honey?"

Dawn answered Joyce while still glaring at Giles, "Why we had to move from L.A., why I refuse to leave Sunnydale, why Buffy kept getting in trouble, and most importantly, why Buffy died. You deserve to know, especially because I'm going to keep helping whether you like it or not."

Giles took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dawn, are you sure? You know your mother better than we do. Are you sure she can handle it?"

Dawn sighed, "I need her to know, Giles."

"Very well. Angel, if you would?" Angel vamped out in response to the request, keeping his hands relaxed by his sides as he waited for Joyce to look at him.

Joyce got over her shock and asked, "Honey, what are you talking about?"

Dawn rolled her eyes, "Just look at Angel, Mom. Look at him!"

Joyce turned around and stumbled back, pulling Dawn behind her as she went. "What are you?" 

Angel shifted back to his human face and answered, "I'm a vampire."

Joyce flinched back and asked, "What does that have to do with Buffy?"

Xander sneered at Angel, "You mean he didn't tell you? He was dating her. He pulled the cryptic, man of mystery act on your sixteen-year-old daughter because his 265-year-old heart yearned for her."

"Xander, that is hardly relevant at the moment," Giles scolded.

Joyce sat down hard in the chair that Willow pushed behind her, shaking her head, then glared at everyone in the room in turn. "Why didn't you tell me? My daughter was doing things that could get her killed and none of you told me!?"

Dawn snorted and preempted anyone else from answering, "I saw what happened to Buffy when she tried to tell you. You wouldn't believe me without proof and I couldn't get any for you at the time. Why should I get myself locked up and drugged when it wouldn't do any good anyway?"

Joyce flinched and said, "You're right. I wouldn't have believed you, any of you, without proof. How did Buffy really die?"

Everyone looked around uncomfortably, then Giles spoke up, "Buffy was a Slayer. That is, a girl with the strength and skills to hunt the forces of darkness, usually vampires but not entirely. There was a very old, very powerful vampire named The Master. He was trapped in a cave underneath this building. And there was a prophecy about him that said he would rise and kill the Slayer. Buffy decided that she would face him in the cave before he could get out so that she could stop whatever bloodshed might be needed to break the spell holding him there. Only it turned out that it was her blood that needed to be shed. Slayer blood is very mystically powerful and The Master had to feed from her in order to get the power to break the spell. By the time Xander and Angel got there it was too late. She was already dead."

Before Joyce could respond to that, a scruffy man in a battered leather jacket walked in, flanked by a dark-haired boy Dawn's age and a light-brown-haired boy a couple years older than Xander and Willow. The man looked them all over and asked Giles, "Rupert Giles?" When Giles nodded, he continued, "John Winchester. May I speak with you privately?"

Giles motioned toward the office and said, "Certainly. Follow me."

The older man followed Giles into the office and closed the door behind them. The older boy stayed by the doors and grabbed the younger boy's arm when he tried to move closer to the table, saying, "You're going to stay right over here and away from the vampire, Sammy."

"Missouri said he has his soul, Dean. I highly doubt he's going to butcher me."

"I don't really care if he has all of Motown, you're not going near the vampire unless it's over my cold dead body."

Xander laughed and said, "Speaking of vampires, do you remember what I told you, Deadboy?"

Angel looked confused for a moment as Xander got up and walked over to the bookcase between the stairs up to the stacks. "Yeah, but Dawn asked me to come..."

Xander cut him off, "Why were you still here for Dawn to ask? For that matter, how did she find you? Are you taking up stalking teenage girls again?"

Dawn looked at Xander confusedly, "He gave me his address at Buffy's funeral in case we needed anything. When I realized that I wanted to tell Mom, we went and got him on the way to the library. What did you tell him?"

"I said that if I saw him in town after Buffy's funeral, I would dust him. Do you want to give me a reason why I shouldn't just do it now, Deadboy?" Xander turned around with a loaded crossbow in his hand and pointed it at Angel's chest.

"No shotgun?" Angel tried to quip.

"Too much spread. I might hit someone else. You thought of a reason for me to let you live yet?"

Angel blurted out, "I killed the Anointed One night before last while he was ordering the Master's bones dug up."

"Thanks. One less thing we have to worry about," Xander said as he fired the crossbow.

Angel dodged and ran out the back door of the library and down into the sewers. The older boy walked over to where the bolt was sticking in the wall next to the bookcage and remarked, "Nice shot," with a cocky smirk as he pulled it out of the wall. 

"Thanks. I've been practicing 'cause it's better to kill the vamps before they get into arm's reach, ya know?" While he was speaking, Xander reloaded the crossbow and put it back on the bookcase.

Joyce stood and said, "I think I need some time to process this... and possibly some schnapps, so I'm going home. Dawn, be home by ten," then left quickly.

 

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Giles led the other man out of the office and called the group to attention. "This is John Winchester and his sons Sam and Dean. They are here because a friend of John's had a vision that they were needed here. John, this is Xander, Willow, and Dawn. 

Xander is a hunter, if with less experience than you and your sons, Willow and Dawn are witches of no mean talent."

Xander watched the men throughout Giles' speech, tilting his head and scenting them. When Giles had finished talking, he stepped forward and asked them, "Could you teach me to shoot? I'm pretty good with a shotgun, but I don't have access to anything else and Giles won't teach me."

Dean grinned and said, "Sure. I can do that. I've been shooting since I was little."

Giles interjected with, "Xander, guns don't work on most demons. Besides that, you are much too young to carry a gun legally and I don't wish to condone illegal behavior."

Xander rolled his eyes and answered him, "Giles, if a wooden stake piercing the heart of a vamp kills it, then wooden bullets will do the trick from further away. If I'm old enough to potentially fight for my life every night, I'm old enough to carry a gun. And who's going to arrest me? The Sunnydale PD don't leave the precinct after dark which is when I would be carrying."

John stopped the budding argument by saying, "We would be glad to teach you whatever we can for as long as we're here, but we need to find out why we're needed right here right now. Missouri told me that we would need to be here by this weekend. What's happening this weekend?"

Everyone looked confused until Willow ventured, "School starts on Tuesday. Are Sam and Dean still in school?"

Dean answered, "I graduated May before last, but Sammy's just about to go into 10th grade. Hey, Dad, maybe that's why. Maybe Sammy's supposed to go to school here."

Sam slumped into a chair at the table and groaned, "Why can't you remember that my name is Sam? It's even shorter to say."

Dean smirked at Sam and answered, "Because it annoys the shit out of you," before looking back at John and continuing his statement, "If he did go to school here, we could keep hunting on breaks and stuff plus there's probably plenty to hunt on the Hellmouth. I could even take care of Sammy and me if you--"

Dean was interrupted by John's phone which he answered, holding up a hand to stop Dean. 

"Hello?"

Missouri's voice came through loud and clear although John was the only one who could hear what she was saying, "John Winchester, you listen to that boy of yours! As odd as it sounds, the Hellmouth is the safest place for Sammy. That demon can't find him there because of the interference from the Hellmouth, and all the other demons there that are weaker than the one you're looking for will avoid him like the plague because he's marked."

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